Easter time

This year we had our Easter egg hunt on Saturday.  We did it for a couple of reasons.  The first was I hate that the focus of Easter is on egg hunts and Christ generally gets forgotten with all the candy.  I know that can happen at Christmas but Easter seems worse.  Maybe it happens because Easter is on a Sunday every year or there are not any Christ centered activities the month leading up to the holiday.  Who knows?  The second reason was because we have early church and there was no way we could have an egg hunt before (which the kids would expect) and still make it on time.  The kids were bugged that the egg hunt was on Saturday but they quickly forgot their frustrations.  The sad part was we were still late on Sunday, just not as late.

After the Easter egg hunt, we went to brunch at the Egg & I.  This was so much fun and something we never do.  Finding our eggs on Saturday followed by brunch might become a tradition.

On Sunday, Brian and I took some time to talk about Christ and his atonement.  The kids missed some of the festivities that day but I think over time it could become normal.

 Here we are in our Easter attire.  Out of 10 shots of the whole family we didn't have a perfect one.  Instead of a self timer we should have a neighbor come over and shoot a couple for us.  We also did some photos of all the girls then all the boys but we are not professional photographers and those shouldn't be posted.

A mess up with the timer so Brian put it to good use.

 Tanner has had enough, but we forced him to stay for a few more shots.

A few fun pictures

In these past 2 months we celebrated Braden and Macy's birthdays. I am a lame mom and don't throw friend parties every year. Lucky for me it was an off year for both Braden and Macy. Next year I might not be so happy. By the way, we only took video of Macy's birthday and I haven't taken the time to capture any still shots from it.

 Here is bubba's dinosaur cake. I had a little too much fun.

Brian gave Braden a remote control boat. Both were super excited. However, Brian played with it the most in the pool in St George.

 Easter fun. Macy doesn't want her picture taken and Braden is hard at work.

 Braden's masterpiece.

 Easter morning. The girls wanted their hair chopped right after dying Easter eggs.

 The girls were off-track in April so we took a trip to St. George. It was our first time seeing Uncle Russ's new vacation home. It was awesome. It had 4 tree houses and a pool heated to 89 degrees. I even got in when the air temperature was only 72.

Boys and their rocks.

 Here is my Top Gun on board the USS Midway. This was the type of plane Maverick flew so Brian had to have his picture by it. Take my breathe away baby!

I picture of me in a cockpit. There are so many things in this world that blow my mind. Aircraft carriers are one of them, along with the military.

Coronado. One of the only pregnancy pictures I don't mind.

So I May Never Get Back into Regular Posting

I wish I had a program that could collage my pictures so I didn't up with a lengthy post. But I don't. So here comes March.

• I finally finished Braden's baby book. He got it in time for his birthday. I couldn't be happier and wish the girls were done with the computer. It is so much more compact and no pictures will be falling out or worrying about damaging it. I also printed the first year of my blog. Only 4 1/2 more years to go. Just call me the turtle, slow and steady.
• St Patrick's day was not exciting but the girls built a leprechaun paradise/house to try to attract the leprechauns. They really wanted to see one. They were disappointed because the leprechaun didn't leave them anything. Thank you school teachers and parents who gave them ideas that leprechauns leave trails of gold and cause mischief in the house.



You can't read the writing but there is a bed, outside relaxing chair, the pool was pulled off because it soaked through the paper plate, bath room, drinking fountain, hot tub, kitchen, etc.

• The girls finished a year of tumbling and really loved it. I need to find a place for gymnastics next year.
• Macy had her turn with the class pet for a weekend. Luigi the hamster came to stay and I was afraid Kelsey and Braden would love him to death. Kelsey was a natural and loved to hold him and did pretty good. Macy was scared to touch or hold him. In fact I am not sure she did hold him. Kelsey always got him out of the cage and took him where Macy wanted him to go. She might have to get one for her next birthday.

• We put an offer on a home. Everything looks solid. The home inspection went well. The appraisal was okay, we are approved for the loan and the earnest money has gone hard. We close in 2 weeks but won't move until May 18th. We are going to let the kids finish out the school year. My head is spinning at all the things that need to happen but I can't work on because there are other pressing things such as a final activity for my calling, a birthday, a birthday party, and then a baptism. I get excited to have my own house, garden, and to move close to some of our best friends. I get sad when I think of moving farther away from another couple of best friends and all the people that I love around here. But no time to ponder on that.
• St. George for Easter break. We spent a glorious week of playing in the warmth. We hiked with family and friends. The kids swam and played in the fountain. We did go-karts in Vegas (way better than Fiesta Fun in St. George). Visited the strip for a bit to get to the M & M factory. Vowed to never go back to the nasty strip. We celebrated Braden's birthday and he had himself a St. George birthday party.
  
  






He may sometimes be forced to dress up, but he has quite the shot and won himself quite a few tickets at the arcade.






Crazy hair day at school in the beginning of March.





On crazy hair day it was also Kelsey's Kinder Cross Country. This is the car she made.



This is what happens when you have 2 older sisters that get bored.

Spring Break, Easter,and birthday

The worst thing about laundry (besides actually finishing it by folding it and putting it away) is the interesting surprises that can be found in the dirty mess. Today was my lucky day because the item I found was not too nasty to tell. Today I found in Kelsey's pocket a glob of dried out pink stuff. Not sure what it was exactly but I am guessing it was the silly putty from Easter. The pink was a similar shade and it was stuck to all the fibers in the pocket. If it was silly putty, it is definitely easier to clean off of fabric when dry. On Easter Sunday Macy managed to ground in silly putty into the sleeve of her new Easter sweater in the middle of Sacrament meeting.

But todays post is not about laundry so I will bring back my focus. This post goes out to my sister who is tired of seeing Larry the Lobster on my blog and wants to know about Macy's birthday and Easter.

Easter week also means Spring Break to those with young children. Tired of the miserable cold in Northern Utah (which still won't leave for good), we decided to trek on down to sunny St. George. We sure did pick it right. The weather couldn't have been better and we lived it up only to cry huge sobs when we got home and had to put away the flip flops.

While in St. George we met up with some good friends and spent the day in Snow Canyon. We played in the sand dunes and then took a hike. The sand dunes were nice because it had rained recently so you only had to dig down a little to find cool, moist, sand castle sand. After we took our little fam on the Hidden Pinyon trail. This was the best idea. It was about 1.5 miles round trip and included a nature guide. There was a pamphlet with 19 different plants to find. This kept the girls interested as they ran ahead to find the next numbered marker. Maybe only once did we hear "Are we almost done? My legs are tired." The trail itself took you through some very scenic areas. It had a little bit of climbing, some flat areas and some hills. Braden the trooper didn't want to be carried. He was big and tough. If his sisters could do, so could he. He did most of the trail himself and you should have seen some rocks his little legs had to maneuver over.



Took a small detour on the way down and stopped at Cove Fort. Well worth it.



One day we took a "short, little, easy drive" to see Toquerville Falls aka La Verkin Falls. One website recommended four wheel drive vehicles. They were wrong. It should have said "four wheel drive required". I would have loved to have seen a car try to get there. The kids laughed and bumped their way there.



Why did Braden cross the road? Because he thought this tube would keep him safe. He loved walking in this tube any chance he got.

 Another day we went up to Gunlock Reservoir because we heard they were letting water out of the spill way. This was the prettiest spill way I have ever seen. If you ever get the chance to see this, do it.

During this trip we decided to give Macy one of her birthday presents, a new bike. The weather down there was a little more conducive for this item. She was so excited and Kelsey was excited to get Macy's old bike. You should have seen how cramped Kelsey's legs were on her old bike. Kelsey has tried riding without training wheels a couple of times but she still needs more work and a lot more courage.

We drove home in time for Easter. The Easter bunny came and dad didn't take very many still shots of the egg hunt and the movies are not worth posting. A "grandma bonnie" thing happened. One egg was never found. Our Easter bunny thought she was smart and left a count of how many eggs were hidden. Well it didn't help and as far as I know one is still missing. Luckily it was a plastic egg. I think one of the kids must have found it afterwards because I have cleaned and still haven't seen it.

After the egg hunt we ran over for pull-aparts and breakfast at my mom's house. Then we ran home for 1 PM church. After church we ran over to dinner at Brian's mom's house. It was relaxing. Oh yea, I had to substitute in Primary too.

I am impressed if you have stayed with me this far. You may be wondering what else we did for Macy's birthday. Well it spread out over a two week period. For presents she received money and clothes from Grandma Carol and Grandpa Alan , a shopping trip with Grandma Wendy and Grandpa DeVon (she brought home a Barbie corvette that Braden enjoys along with 2 Barbies and something else), a new MP3 player (because she lost her other one), the new Taylor Swift CD and a squinkies gumball machine (it dispenses squinkies not gumballs). She took doughnuts to school for her treat. For her night out she chose Incredible Pizza (and no no one took pictures, I had the camera and was playing with Kelsey).

Days Gone By

There are days when I wish I could go back to when I didn't have to worry about a place to live, putting meals on the table for others, and all the other responsibilities that come with growing up.  Those were the days when I couldn't wait to be an adult with a job and/or family.  I didn't really appreciate that I never had to worry about providing the basics because my parents took care of that.  I took for granted that the fridge was always filled because my mom went grocery shopping.  I could take showers because someone remembered to pay the utilities.  Oh what I would give some days to have my only worries be about getting up on time, finishing my school work, and hanging out with friends. I can't go back so I will just have to go forward and figure out how to enjoy my responsibilities again (my mind sometimes forgets to do this).

Here is what we have been doing while Macy has been off-track:

1. Had FHE with my family at the South Jordan Rec Center.  It was Braden and Ellie's first time swimming and both seem to be water lovers.  Macy loved the water slide.



2. Spur of the moment trip to St. George.  We took a hike, went to dinner, did some swimming and tried to thaw out.  Mostly we relaxed.  On the hike the girls had to have their pictures taken about 100 times.  Kelsey was the worst and wanted her picture taken every few feet.  This was a complete 180 because for some time she has hated the camera.  Not sure what changed.  If you ask Macy she hates hiking although she seemed to enjoy it the whole time.  We got lucky and only Kelsey only had to make 2 pee breaks in the short timeframe.  We found an old candy store right by the Tabernacle and a delicious sandwich shop near Croshaw pies.  The quote of the trip was from Kelsey.  The pressure in her ears was off and it was making her made because she couldn't fix it.  She shouts out, "I hate ears.  I wish I didn't have any."



3. Brian has been working really long hours.
4. I am working on my first real estate deal.  I am helping my cousins find their first home.
5. We finished swim lessons.
6. Braden turned one.  (This requires a post of its own.)
7. Easter came and went.  It felt a little like Christmas because there was snow on the ground, but instead of presents there were eggs hidden.  For the first time the girls were so excited for the Easter Bunny to come.  They kept asking when he would come.  On Sat a friend came to the door.  When Macy saw her she started jumping up and down screaming the the Easter Bunny was going to come that night.  This in turn got her friend jumping and screaming.  Kelsey then had to join the fun.  Easter morning came and as I was lying in bed I heard some high pitched whispering.  The whispers were talking about "there is your Easter basket.  Where is my Easter basket?"  "I see some eggs.  Where is your Easter basket?"  Soon Kelsey came in complaining that Macy found her Easter for her and that wasn't fair.  In their Easter baskets was a baby Zhu Zhu pet (they have been begging for these for months).  This small gift consumed all thoughts.  They didn't even care about finding eggs because Macy's Easter basket hadn't been found yet.  They didn't even care that the Easter bunny had put money in the eggs instead of candy.  I thought for sure the money would excite them.  Alas, the hamsters stole the show.  We did have one tragedy.  The Sunday before the Easter bunny visited a friend's house to drop off Easter dresses.  Macy came home crying after church because the Easter bunny didn't bring her a dress.  I told her the Easter bunny doesn't bring Easter dresses because Grandma Carol buys dresses and she could wear the dress the Sunday after Easter.  That didn't really comfort her and she was upset the the bunny left her out.

Here are the Easter pictures.  We had very few good ones because we did mostly video of the day.

Braden sporting his new Easter duds.  The girls received an outfit from Grandma Wendy and a dress from Grandma Carol.  Of course Kelsey only wore a portion of her outfit on Easter and we forgot to take a picture of Macy in the new clothes (that and she only had on part of hers for about an hour, too much accessorizing I guess).  Then yesterday I thought they would wear their new Easter dresses that they have been begging for.  Only Macy would wear hers. Kelsey said it was too cold for hers.  Then I forgot to get pictures of Macy.  I even put on a outfit to match thinking it would make for a cute family photo.

Here is the picture of the baby Zhu Zhu hamster that stole the show.